digitalzygot1
Minister (2k+ posts)
The CIA has mushroomed into the largest US spy agency with a nearly $US15 billion ($A16.91 billion) budget as it expands intelligence, cyber sabotage and overseas covert operations, secret leaked documents show.
Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden leaked the government's "black budget" for fiscal year 2013 to The Washington Post, which published portions of the top-secret document online in the latest in a series of revelations that have put the US intelligence community under a spotlight.
The $US52.6 billion ($A59.30 billion) budget request for the nation's 16 spy agencies is not a startling revelation in itself - the White House has published overall intelligence spending since 2007.
But it shows a dramatic resurgence of the CIA, once thought to be on the decline after it acknowledged intelligence failures prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
It now is the dominant colossus within the national intelligence community, expanding its workforce by more than 25 per cent from a decade ago, to 21,575 this year.
CIA has increased its budget request to $US14.7 billion ($A16.57 billion), nearly 50 per cent more than the NSA this year, according to the Post's review of the documents, even as government austerity has forced agencies to contend with shrinking budgets.
By comparison, in 1994 the CIA accounted for $US4.8 billion ($A5.41 billion) of the total $US43.4 billion ($A48.93 billion) intel budget in 2012 dollars, according to the Post.
In the budget's introduction, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned that the intelligence community faced "hard choices" as government is forced to rein in costs.
The NSA has long been considered the behemoth of the intelligence community, but according to the black budget, CIA's resources are nearly 50 per cent larger.
The funding pays for an array of spy satellites, high-tech equipment and employees including analysts, linguistic experts, cryptologists and an increasing number of cyber specialists.
But CIA resources have also been funding secret prisons, an enlarged counterterrorism centre, a series of paramilitary operations, and some $US2.3 billion ($A2.59 billion) in human intelligence operations, the Post said.
It is also spending $US2.6 billion ($A2.93 billion) on "covert action programs," which include deployment of lethal drones, payments to militias in places like Afghanistan, and efforts to sabotage Iran's nuclear program.
http://news.msn.co.nz/worldnews/8715069/black-budget-shows-cia-swells-in-size
Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden leaked the government's "black budget" for fiscal year 2013 to The Washington Post, which published portions of the top-secret document online in the latest in a series of revelations that have put the US intelligence community under a spotlight.
The $US52.6 billion ($A59.30 billion) budget request for the nation's 16 spy agencies is not a startling revelation in itself - the White House has published overall intelligence spending since 2007.
But it shows a dramatic resurgence of the CIA, once thought to be on the decline after it acknowledged intelligence failures prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
It now is the dominant colossus within the national intelligence community, expanding its workforce by more than 25 per cent from a decade ago, to 21,575 this year.
CIA has increased its budget request to $US14.7 billion ($A16.57 billion), nearly 50 per cent more than the NSA this year, according to the Post's review of the documents, even as government austerity has forced agencies to contend with shrinking budgets.
By comparison, in 1994 the CIA accounted for $US4.8 billion ($A5.41 billion) of the total $US43.4 billion ($A48.93 billion) intel budget in 2012 dollars, according to the Post.
In the budget's introduction, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned that the intelligence community faced "hard choices" as government is forced to rein in costs.
The NSA has long been considered the behemoth of the intelligence community, but according to the black budget, CIA's resources are nearly 50 per cent larger.
The funding pays for an array of spy satellites, high-tech equipment and employees including analysts, linguistic experts, cryptologists and an increasing number of cyber specialists.
But CIA resources have also been funding secret prisons, an enlarged counterterrorism centre, a series of paramilitary operations, and some $US2.3 billion ($A2.59 billion) in human intelligence operations, the Post said.
It is also spending $US2.6 billion ($A2.93 billion) on "covert action programs," which include deployment of lethal drones, payments to militias in places like Afghanistan, and efforts to sabotage Iran's nuclear program.
http://news.msn.co.nz/worldnews/8715069/black-budget-shows-cia-swells-in-size
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